C.L. Bryant

Cleon Lewis Bryant, known as C. L. Bryant (born March 28, 1956),^[1] is an African-American Baptist minister and radio and television host based in his native Shreveport, Louisiana. When he formerly resided in Garland, Texas, he was the president of the NAACP chapter there.^[2]

Background

He is the only child of the late Lewis C. Bryant, a World War II veteran, a long-time employee of the Shreveport Club, and Elnola G. Bryant both parents are interred at Carver Memorial Cemetery in Shreveport.^[3]

Bryant was one of the first black children to attend Lake Shore Junior High School in Shreveport at the beginning of school desegregation in the late 1960s. He graduated in 1974 from Fair Park High School in Shreveport, along with the Fox Sports announcer Tim Brando.^[4]

Career

Bryant earned a Master's degree Theology. He was ordained into the ministry by the late civil rights pioneer, E. Edward Jones, president from 1986 to 2003 of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., and pastor for fifty-seven years of the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Shreveport. Bryant has served in several church positions, beginning in Longview, Texas, where his struggling congregation received financial assistance from the Shreveport philanthropist Virginia Shehee.^[5] At the time of his mother's death in 2005, Bryant was pastor of the Cedar Hill Baptist Church in Grand Cane in DeSoto Parish south of Shreveport.^[3]

His C. L. Bryant Show, airs weekday evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 Central Time over KEEL Radio in Shreveport.

Bryant is Senior Fellow at Freedomworks Washington, DC. a member of the Republican Party and has defended itagainst allegations of racism.^[6][7]

Often at odds with liberal leaders in the African-American community, Bryant in March 2012 criticized Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for their role over protests stemming from the controversial shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida.^[8]

Bryant is the founder of the group, "One Nation Back to God", which has a website. In 2012, he produced and released the independent film documentary, Runaway Slave, "a movie about the race to free the Black community from the slavery of tyranny and progressive policies." ^[8][9][10] He has also penned the 2010 non-fiction book, Lead Us to Temptation, Deliver Us to Evil.^[11]

On January 19, 2016, Bryant endorsed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for the Republican presidential nomination.^[12]

Personal life

He has been married thirty-six years to the former Jane Carline Pruitt.^[13] The Bryants have four children and eleven grandchildren. Bryant and his wife reside in Grand Cane, where they are both registered Republican voters.^[1][13]

The couple formerly resided in Tampa, Florida; Mrs. Bryant previously lived in Inglewood, California, dates unavailable.

References